In automatic plants for manufacturing tiles, plates or trays are presently used, onto each of which, after the tile pressing stage, a pressed tile is drawn or stripped. After the pressing stage, and during the drawing or stripping of a pressed tile, a plate is extended below the frame containing the pressed tiles, and then the tiles are stripped onto the plates. Subsequently, each plate carrying a freshly pressed tile is placed, together with other similar plates carrying freshly pressed tiles, in drying-out cells for a treatment which is commonly accelerated by means of steam. After the drying out or seasoning, which may last a variable length of time, the plates are removed from the cells with the dried-out pressed tiles thereon. The tiles then undergo successive operations and the plates resume their place in the operational process.
As the number of pressing strokes presently obtainable with an improved press are some thousands during a working shift (for instance, at seven pressing strokes/minute, there are 3,360 pressing strokes in 8 hours), and since, for each pressing stage, a respective plate is required, a plant requires some thousands of plates or trays. The plates or trays must be positively planar and oxidation resistant, so that their cost is comparatively high. Consequently, the effect of the plate equipment on the cost of a plant is about 20-30% of the overall cost of the particular plant, excluding the cost of the press.